Stratford Road Shirley

[brommas]

Hard to imagine now that on the land opposite Notcutts Garden Centre until the 1940's was a horse racing course. Later it became the golf course.

Shirley Park Racecourse

There was also a Roman dig right by the stream /river that ran along the bottom of the golf course before the m42 was built, we used to shoot on land adjacent to the golf course and regularly would see teams there doing archaeology. All gone now I believe since they built the industrial estate there.
Thanks for posting that, I had never been aware of the horse racing connection, we used to work on the farm that was just south of the dig, up on the hill that was destroyed when the m42 was eventually put into full swing, used to ride horses up and down there whilst it was still in the planning stages for a good couple of years, was great fun going up and down those steep sidings on horseback!.

 

[pjmburns]

Hard to imagine now that on the land opposite Notcutts Garden Centre until the 1940's was a horse racing course. Later it became the golf course.

Shirley Park Racecourse

My Mom who grew up and went to school in Shirley used to tell the story of how the school was let out early on race days so they could avoid the traffic on Stratford Road. She found it funny in the light of how much car traffic there was later compared to in the 1920s and 30s.
I can rememberr the wrought iron gateway at the entrance to what was then the Golf Course used to have across the top "Shirley ........ Course" ( i assume the word "Race" had been cut out)